Library Founder Vows To Fight Demolition

June 25, 1985|The Morning Call

The founder of the Pierce Branch of the Bucks County Free Library said at the Perkasie Zoning Hearing Board meeting last night he intends to employ physical protest to stop the demolition of a building he would like to see serve as an interim home for the library.

Responding to a suggestion by board Solicitor Ian A. Abarbanel that "maybe it's time somebody lay down in front of that bulldozer to stop it (the demolition)," Samuel Pierce said he will have a number of people from the Friends of the Library stage a peaceful demonstration at the site this morning.

He said further that he intended to have the group physically obstruct equipment from demolishing the building.

"I think somebody ought to wake somebody up," he said.

Pierce and legal counsel J. Lawrence Grim of Perkasie had requested that the board stay a 1983 order requiring demolition of the former Bell of Pennsylvania switching station by Monday - a structure that Pierce and others in the community would like to see used as an interim home in place of the deteriorating library on 6th Street.

In making the appeal to the board, Pierce said he had served on the county's library board for 11 years and that it took eight years to begin the center county library.

"The Bell building is an alternate site for the time being and it wouldn't cost the municipality any money," he said.

Grim told the board the purpose of the appeal was to get the county and Bell back to negotiations over possible terms of a lease for the building. "They're not really talking now," he said.

To Grim's statement that he was asked to serve as a catalyst in bringing the two parties together, board president J.H. Strothers commented, "They've had two years."

Abarbanel instructed board members that "from a legal point of view, this board has no reason to give a delay."

The board agreed in turning down the request.

"If you can get an appeal in before the demolition crew comes, you might be able to stop it," Abarbanel counseled Pierce.

After learning from Grim that no legal action to stop the demolition was planned by the county, the borough or the Friends of the Library group, Abarbanel made his unusual suggestion.

Asked why he had waited until the last minute before taking any action to preserve the building for use as the county library, Pierce said, "It seemed incomprehensible to me that the county and the borough would not have taken the necessary legal steps to prevent this from happening."

The option of filing an appeal to stop the demolition was ruled out by Grim because, he said, after late afternoon discussions with Bell, the company planned to proceed with demolition whether or not a restraining order was issued by the courts.

He said the company had contractual obligations to the contractor for $16,000 and that unless that money was paid by some third party, demolition would proceed this morning.